The Empress of a Thousand Burdens

She rises like a dawn remembered only in prophecy— her face a pale moon suspended above the murmuring empire. Gold encircles her brow, a diadem forged not of metal but of memory, whispered lineage, and the soft machinery of destiny. Across her cheeks, flowers bloom— fragile rebellions against the weight she carries. Each petal is a life, a choice, a secret once whispered into a Bene Gesserit ear and now forever grafted to her skin. Beneath her, the world unfurls in miniature: cities clinging to her presence, temples leaning toward her light, streets winding like prayers spoken by a thousand unseen mouths. The empire gathers in her open palm, a quiet testament to the women who have held galaxies together with nothing but grace and an unbroken spine. Red blossoms erupt among stone and spire— the color of sacrifice, the color of prophecy fulfilled and prophecy feared. Figures wander the landscape like thoughts drifting through her mind, awed pilgrims orbiting the gravity of her existence. Yet her gaze drifts past it all— past the towers, the roses, the supplicants— toward a horizon only she can see. It is the look of one who knows that empires bloom only to wither, that power is a desert wind, and that even a throne must kneel before time. She is the Empress of quiet burdens, the keeper of forgotten futures, the still point in an empire’s turning. And in her hand rests a world that believes it rules itself— never knowing it is she who holds the stars steady.